What phone and plan your teen ager uses

[Anonymous]

I have a son who just entered teenage years. He has a very basic phone since last year to call us in emergency. He is upset over it since he says his friends have iPhone or Mytouch 4G or similar high end phone with texting.

I am struggling with the justification to provide him with a expensive phone with the texting, since he can barely ever use it. In the last 6 months he has called us for pick ups 4/5 times. He will not be using the phone in school. He comes back home within 1/2 hour of his school closure. He has his computer hooked up to network to email or chat with friends. So, I feel it is wasteful to give a kid a $500 phone which requires more than $100 per month plan.

What do you think?

[Anonymous]

My kids would love to have the phone that all their friends have, with internet, of course. They have talk and text and we added them for $10/month each. They hardly ever use them. They say it's because they are embarrassed to pull out their non-smart phones in front of people. Sucks to be a teen when that's all you have to worry about--looking cool. When they get jobs and can pay for the upgrade, they can get it.

[Anonymous]

My kid has an iphone. When the iphone 5 comes out, he will get the upgrade. He is in high school, 4+ weighted GPA, 4 AP's this year. If a phone makes him happy, I say let him have the phone. Work hard, play hard. Don't work hard, don't get diddly crap.

[Anonymous]

My son is the same age as your son and he too begs for an upgraded phone. He has a basic phone that he can use for calling and texting. It has Internet, but we don't allow him to use it. We have a family phone plan with unlimited texting. He also has an iPod touch. Between the two, he has everything that an upgraded phone would have. So I don't know what the attraction to a better phone is. I have told him that if he could pay the bill himself, he could buy one. That means he needs the money for the phone plus two years of the difference in our phone bills. Ever since I said that he's been saving his money.

[Anonymous]

My middle schooler has a non-smartphone but it does have a keyboard and he can call and send texts. He pays the bill himself by working around the house in addition to regular chores.

The phone has been EXTREMELY useful for pickup arrangements after school and activities and also lets him keep in touch with friends through texting. However, I was careful to disable the internet and also MMS/pictures sent over the internet. Also, the phone is plugged in in the kitchen and off limits between 9:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. So far this is working well.

I can see that a high school kid with a 4.0 could get an iphone -- I totally get that. But I am shocked at the devices that my child's classmates have, both in terms of cost, ability to get on the internet unsupervised, access to games and apps, etc.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked into Virgin Mobile or Boost? They have smartphones on cheap plans. You have to buy the phone outright but then the cost is as low as 25/month for unlimited everything. If your son wants it so badly, have him get a job/do chores to pay for it.

[Anonymous]

I do think texting is necessary - not so much for texting with friends, but with me. This way we can pass messages back and forth (about carpool, pickup, and sports practice cancellation) with far less interruption.

If my son wanted a snazzy iPhone, he would have to get a job and pay for it.

[Anonymous]

Mine both have iphones. Both are in HS and did not get them until HS. One is a hand me down iphone 3, the other has a 4. The 3 will get a hand me down 4 when my DH gets a 5. We have an ATT family plan so it's not very expensive for the 2nd and 3rd phones although we do have to pay $25 per phone for the data plan. We have unlimited texting and volume tends to go up or down depending on girlfriend situations. My DS gets tons of texts from girls.

[Anonymous]

I look at it from another angle. IPhones are easy targets. They are more easily "lost", "stolen", etc. I guess I don't see why a child needs a fancier phone than one I had last year. (Or even have NOW.) I think it's begging for trouble. I also think the "because everyone else does and DS wants to look cool" is perhaps THE SINGLE MOST DANGEROUS argument and if that's your yardstick for doing anythig you're in for a world of hurt in more ways than you can count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do think texting is necessary - not so much for texting with friends, but with me. This way we can pass messages back and forth (about carpool, pickup, and sports practice cancellation) with far less interruption.

If my son wanted a snazzy iPhone, he would have to get a job and pay for it.

Why do people feel texting is necessary? If it is an emergency, I would like to get to talk to someone on the other side immediately. If it is not, I will call and leave a message. If you are talking about interruption, texting in fact causes a lot more interruption since you are either waiting for a text back or responding to someone else in the middle of doing your regular work. So, I do not understand the argument for texting, I feel a phone call is far more effective and timely in terms of communication. JMO.

[Anonymous]

My 6th grader is on a fmaily plan with us, doesn't have a smartphone but does have a keypad for texting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has an iphone. When the iphone 5 comes out, he will get the upgrade. He is in high school, 4+ weighted GPA, 4 AP's this year. If a phone makes him happy, I say let him have the phone. Work hard, play hard. Don't work hard, don't get diddly crap.

Wow. I would NEVER buy my son an Iphone, yet alone replace it with the newest model. We will give him a pay-as you go phone, but he has to pay for anything better then that. He simply doesn't need it, and we see no reason we should have to pay for him to be able to text all his friends whenever he wants, if he wants anything more then the basic thing he should pay for it himself.
(He's 15, fyi)

[Anonymous]

13-year-old DD has a pre-paid Virgin Mobile phone. She can Internet and text on it, although surfing chews up her minutes so she quickly figured out that that's better done at home on her computer or iPod Touch. She is not allowed to have the phone out at school, so it is mostly used to text me about pickups or to text friends. She wanted to buy a phone with a keyboard, but we convinced her that that was a poor use of her savings.

[Anonymous]

Well, I do believe you have to do what is best for your family.

My 7th grader has a basic no frills phone – the free phone that came with the contract.

My HS senior has a iPhone 4. But she uses it as her phone, her iPod and her mapping/navigation system. 3 gadgets for the price of 1. She gets great grades and she works a part time job. She pays half the bill. Fine by me.

Both kids are on my friends and family with unlimited texting. Oh, and if you paid $500 for a phone you are crazy. The iPhone was 149.00 for us. Also, you do not hear about a lot of iPhone thefts because the security settings make it difficult to unlock for the “average” person.

To each his own.

[Anonymous]

Texting is necessary because in an actual emergency, one that significantly increases demand on the network like say an earthquake or blackout or whatever shakes the public up, texts can get through more easily than a phone call.